4Cs: From Conflict to Conviviality through Creativity and Culture is a European Cooperation Project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. The 4Cs seeks to understand how training and education in art and culture can constitute powerful resources to address the issue of conflict as well as to envision creative ways in which to deal with conflictual phenomena, while contributing to audience development through active participation and co-production. The project aims at advancing the conceptual framework of intercultural dialogue and enhancing the role of public arts and cultural institutions in fostering togetherness through cultural diversity and intercultural encounters.

The European Commission has acknowledged that tackling the migration and refugee crisis is a European obligation that requires a comprehensive strategy and a determined effort. Within such framework, the European Commission has emphasised the role of culture and the arts in contributing towards building a more cohesive and open society through the integration of refugees, helping them to better understand their new environment and its interaction with their own socio-cultural background.

Grounded in the belief that culture and creative practice can emerge as powerful resources in conflict situations, the 4Cs wishes to respond to this challenge by exploring the ways in which culture and the arts can help bring individuals together within a model of intercultural dialogue, mutual recognition, and equal participation. This will be achieved by fostering equal involvement and by promoting cross-cultural collaboration through the creation and development of different activities such as exhibitions, artistic and research residencies, film screenings, mediation labs, workshops, conferences, publications, an online platform, and a Summer School.

The 4Cs aims at responding to the challenges of migration, security, and freedom of expression by raising awareness about the role of creative and cultural work in the strengthening of European identity and European citizenship in a project of peace and conviviality. The 4Cs will support community members in their role as active agents in the cultural scene at local, regional, national, and international levels and contribute to a lasting change of attitude and active citizenship in local communities.

Throughout history, but particularly from the 1800s onwards, translation has played a pivotal, though often silent, role in the increasingly pressing goal of promoting literacy and the ideal of ‘universal education’. In the 19th and early 20th centuries serialized translations in newspapers, as well as inexpensive collections of translated works were often used both as a means of educating the masses and of increasing sales. Thus, translation has been instrumental in both the rise in literacy and the growth of capitalism. Resorting to translation was often an ambiguous means, both progressive and conservative in nature, of enhancing literacy, on the one hand, and of producing and disseminating pulp literature among the uneducated masses on the other, thus actively seeking to preserve the status quo in the fast-changing world of industrialization.

It could be argued that translation and literacy have always shared a common goal: that of striving to acquaint with unfamiliarity and difference, with a surplus of meaning and information, of molding citizens out of subjects by providing them with the ability to make informed choices in religion, politics, and culture are concerned, and, thereby, to expand their worldview, making it broader and more inclusive.

Nowadays, both the concept and the everyday practice of citizenship in a global world require informed and literate subjects, who are able to decode and interpret a range of different discursive practices produced with the help of multiple technologies. Therefore, ‘literacy’ has come to be redefined, eschewing the traditional definition of ‘classic’ literacy and encompassing a series of mental and practical tasks. UNESCO, for instance, argues that ‘[l]iterate societies are more than locales offering access to printed matter, written records, visual materials and advanced technologies; ideally, they enable the free exchange of text-based information and provide an array of opportunities for lifelong learning.’ (Education for all. Global Monitoring Report, 2006, http://www.unesco.org/education/GMR2006/full/chapt6_eng.pdf). NGOs are keen to stress the role that literacy plays in the development of communities and countries. However, as the report suggests, literacy is no longer just a goal to be achieved, but rather a process of continuous human development, a development based on information and on access to information. This, more often than not, implies that translation is understood as a process of negotiation with otherness and newness in highly mobile, ever-changing and, at times, volatile, modern-day communities. Nonetheless, translation has been conspicuously absent from debates about literacy.

This call invites researchers to reflect on the ways in which translation and literacy have impacted on each other, both in the past and in the present.

The conference languages are English and Portuguese. Speakers should prepare for a 20-minute presentation followed by questions. Please send a 250-word abstract, as well as a brief biographical note (100 words) to translation.literacy@gmail.com by March 9, 2018.

Proposals should list the paper title, name, institutional affiliation, and contact details. Notification of abstract acceptance or rejection will take place by April 30, 2018.

The award in the Animator category went to Jan Świerkowski, the leader of the B61 Institute who promotes science by combining the work of artists and researchers. His performances have been watched by over 20,000. spectators, and the exhibition “Cosmic Underground” (realized on a freight train) travelled across Europe: from Tallinn, through Poland, to Lisbon.

“It is important for our team of scientists and artists to work out a language of understanding with the public” – emphasised Świerkowski